I often have a hard time offering advice to students about how to study more effectively. And countless students tell me that they studied "really hard" for the exam, but still performed poorly.

Re-reading over Powerpoints (rather than taking their own notes) is one major culprit. Failure to work any problems, or to learn from working problems (i.e., not just immediately looking up the answer when they don't know) are additional culprits.

According to the article linked below:

"the majority of students study by re-reading notes and textbooks — but the psychologists' research, both in lab experiments and of actual students in classes, shows this is a terrible way to learn material."

"Many student research proposals show an inadequate grasp of the literature, or failure to identify appropriate validated methods. Hence, they risk either answering a question that is already answered, or carrying out research whose findings cannot be integrated with current knowledge. " -- Ronan Conroy, Why Student Research Fails

The list includes Leigh Van Valen's influential "Red Queen" hypothesis -- when it was rejected, he created his own journal in which to publish it.

Also an interesting opinion piece by Marc Kirschner on the "impact factor" in science:

"In science, faster, better, and cheaper are not as important as conceptual, novel, and careful. Focusing resources narrowly on areas that are deemed impactful, while ignoring many others, decreases diversity, making science less productive. … I also believe, along with Huda Zoghbi,† that scientists must challenge the assumption that translation, rather than fundamental understanding, is the choke point of progress in the application of science to societal problems. They should work hard to encourage risk and exploration, while at the same time rewarding careful, thoughtful investigation. And they should reemphasize humility, banishing the words “impact” and “significance” and seeing them for what they really are: ways of asserting bias without being forced to defend it.".

"This is the reality of research: it’s rarely quick, never easy, and research is often as much about solving problems than it is about straight-forward data collection."

Very funny, but it is kind of a shame that TV often gives the wrong impression of what doing science is actually like. Most things they show are either completely impossible, or would take years of troubleshooting to actually figure out.

I've heard anecdotal stories about similar questions posed to women applying for graduate eduction as late as the 1960's or 1970's. Isn't it great that we're so much more enlightened now? Or will we look back in 50 years and have the same reaction about our current selves? What's so pernicious about biases is that they are often so hard to spot, at least without the benefit of hindsight.